Landing on Sunday
by BuzzCat
Summary: The Doctor lands on a Sunday for the first time and the last time. He says 'good-bye' to one and says 'hello' to another. Rated for not-depicted character death.


It was the only time the Doctor ever landed on a Sunday. After living for so long and flying for so long, so many rules were eventually broken. It was time to break the no-Sundays rule. It was interesting, kicking his way along the sidewalk on a Sunday. The air tasted different, tinges of desperation streaking its otherwise purely Chiswick scent as people prepared to return to work the next day. As the Doctor picked his way along, he happened to pass by a church. There were only a few cars parked out front, barely enough to fill the first few rows of the lot, but the most prominent one was a hearse. Out of morbid curiosity, the Doctor crossed the street to stand in front of the church and read the sign. What he saw made his hearts drop: "Funeral: Donna Noble"

With heavy feet and thudding hearts, he walked quietly through the door. An organist was playing quietly in the front of the church while some unknown friend spoke about Donna. There were perhaps twenty people in all attending the funeral. Even from the back, the Doctor could spot Wilf and Sylvia sitting in the front. The Doctor couldn't believe it. The TARDIS showed that on Earth, it had been perhaps eight months since he had dropped off Donna. How could this happened? What tragedy could have possibly befallen her that she was now cold and dead? Paying no mind the staring onlookers, the Doctor walked up the main aisle between the pews. Wilf and Sylvia were the only ones to recognize him, each crying out, "Doctor!" He ignored them as well, stepping up the two stairs until he was beside the casket. There was Donna, nestled on a pillow with her red hair draped over her shoulders. Her dress reminded him of that day so very long ago, the day they first met,

"No pockets..." he whispered to himself. Her skin was pale, even more so than it had been in life. There was no flush in her cheek, whether from running or some compliment paid. It wasn't Donna; it couldn't be. The Doctor didn't want to know there was a time when Donna Noble was no more. He had always known, abstractly, that she would die. But never before had it been driven home so hard. There was a time, a great deal of it, in which Donna Noble did not exist. The Doctor suddenly didn't know what to do with himself. He was lost, in time and space and himself. He turned to Sylvia and Wilf, like a child looking for direction. After spending so much time running away from the deaths that always followed him, the Doctor felt just like that: a child, confused and uncertain. Sylvia was glaring at him with a fury he knew well, but Wilf a blubbering mess. Strangest of all, Wilf had a wadded-up blanket in his arms. The person on the podium was silent, watching the Doctor. The Doctor stepped up to the podium, wordlessly walking forward until the speaker was forced to move out of his way and the Doctor stood before the microphone. The twenty people looked up at him, confused. The Doctor swallowed the building lump in his throat and said in a surprisingly strong voice,

"I knew Donna, probably more than most of you lot. Donna Noble, human. Always ready to fight, ready to argue. But always for a good reason. Putting people in their place, that was Donna. But she was so much more than any of you will ever know. She saved the universe, all the universes. She was the most important woman in the universe," _in my universe,_ "and do you know what you reduced her to? Screaming because no one was listening! All of you!" The Doctor felt the anger, the Oncoming Storm, coming to the front. After spending so long hiding the deaths that he carried on his back, it was easier to yell at them all than to feel one more death, one more heavy blame, fall between his shoulders. The Doctor drew another breath, fully prepared to ream out the entire group, when he heard a sound. A thin wail, that of a baby. He turned to Wilf and saw him gently rocking the blanket in his arms. The Doctor stopped. Stopped talking, stopped thinking, stopped breathing. Wilf's head shot up to look at him and the Doctor knew in that moment the only reason Wilf would be holding a baby. The Doctor felt himself pale and he quietly stepped down. The floor seemed to rush up to meet him. He walked slowly, simultaneously wanting to run to and from Wilf and his burden. The Doctor couldn't help his eyes from sliding again to the casket as he passed it, to the closed eyes and (for once) closed mouth in it. He was in front of Wilf before he knew it. The old man looked both afraid and angry. Wordlessly, he handed the baby in the blankets to the Doctor.

The child was ginger, of course. A pink hat. A baby girl. Her eyes opened when she was passed over to the stranger and the Doctor found a frighteningly familiar pair of brown eyes looking up at him. Donna's hair, his eyes. He did the math once, twice. It added up. This was his child, his daughter. His and Donna's. He looked up att Wilf, tears streaming down his face,

"What's her name?"

"Eliza. Elizabeth Jennifer Noble." said Wilf, his voice shaky.

"Jenny..." The Doctor again felt the air whoosh from his lungs, leaving only his respiratory bypass between himself and death. No, not between him and death. He had looked death in the eye when he stood beside that coffin. Now he saw life. Eliza looked up at him, absolutely quiet. That was the Time Lord in her. She couldn't have been more than a few weeks old, but was already recognizing faces and accidentally using her telepathy. Even now, the Doctor felt a soft tendril poking at his mind, more of a slight brush than an actual prod. He closed his eyes and reached out, brushing his own mind against that tendril. Instantly, his daughter's mind exploded in his. How the blanket was slightly scratchy, the hat too warm and why was everyone so sad? It was only when Eliza started wailing that that Doctor realized he had accidentally exposed her to his own bottomless grief. He instantly shut off his own mind, using his thumb to rub soothing circles on her forehead. The Doctor looked up at Wilf, again having to swallow the lump in his throat,

"How did Donna...?"

"She remembered. Had Eliza and took one look at her eyes before everything came flooding back. Said 'Doctor' and just collapsed."

"IT'S YOUR FAULT!" screamed Sylvia, no longer to simply sit by and watch the man who effectively murdered her daughter stand unaccused, "IF SHE HAD NEVER GONE OFF WITH YOU SHE'D STILL BE HERE! IT'S YOUR FAULT! IT'S YOUR FAULT! IT'S YOUR-"

"No one knows that better than me." said the Doctor with the kind of raw pain in his voice that made Sylvia believe him. The Doctor turned back to Wilf, "Do you want me to take her?"

"Eliza?""

"YOU MOST CERTAINLY WILL NOT!" screeched Sylvia, "SHE'S MY GRANDDAUGHTER AND I'LL BE DAMNED-"

"If her father takes her and raises her?"

"You didn't want her when Donna told you she was preg-"

"She never told me." interrupted the Doctor, looking Sylvia in the eye, "She never said a word. It would have been about a month before we...separated. She probably didn't even know." The trio could only stand there quietly, watching Eliza sink back to sleep, while the rest of the twenty attendees sat watching them. At last, Wilf spoke up,

"If you want to take her Doctor...do it."

"NO!"

"Sylvia," Wilf turned to her, "neither of us are getting any younger. I'll be dead by the time she's ten and we don't have the money to care for a newborn. He'll at least have that. He can look after her."

"Like he looked after Donna?" sneered Sylvia.

"No," said the Doctor, finally speaking in his own defense, "better. Eliza is part Time Lord, possibly even more than half with all the residual time energy that would have been swirling around in Donna's mind. With that comes a psychic link to other Time Lords. I'll always know where and when she is, if she's in trouble. I loved Donna and I did my best. I'm sorry I couldn't do more. Now, I can. At least for our daughter." he said. Wilf nodded. Sylvia eyed him suspiciously,

"You have to bring her 'round every other day for a few hours. I refuse to have my own granddaughter not recognize me." she said. The Doctor simply nodded,

"Agreed."

"And you have to be careful. Nothing dangerous. Take her to, I don't know, bloody Planet of the Binkies if you have to. Keep. Her. Safe."

"Will do." said the Doctor, holding Eliza closer to him. Wilf and Sylvia both nodded at him and the Doctor nodded back before walking out of the church. The TARDIS was parked just around the corner and the doors, for the first time, opened automatically for him. The moment he and Eliza crossed the threshold, a hologram of Donna appeared. Even with the transparency of the image, the Doctor could still spot the vivacity of Donna that was unique to her. The Doctor stopped in his tracks and could only watch her flash him a smug grin he had so missed,

"See, Time Boy? Not just you who can push buttons until something works. Anyway, if you're seeing this, it means I'm dead and you found our daughter. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I didn't know myself, until the Metacrisis thingy. The other you is here too," the Metacrisis Doctor appeared behind Donna, waving and smiling,

"Hello! She didn't know until our minds fused and I was able to pinpoint the source of a few accidental telepathic connections she made with the baby. Anyway, I keyed it in for the TARDIS to only display this if a combination of Donna's DNA and your biological makeup enters the TARDIS."

"So now you know I'm telling the truth. So, my darling, wonderful space man, I have a few things to tell you."

"You always do." whispered the Doctor under his breath. The hologram Donna took no notice as she continued,

"First, you should probably know that I love you. I know we were going to be mates and all, but, well, that changed. Obviously. Otherwise I wouldn't be in the pregnant state I am now. Second, the code to my room is 'milliner'. I know you're eventually going to need to go in there for something or other, probably something you need right then, so I'm just telling you know. Just, please, don't move too much around. TARDIS, if he tries too much, I want you to boot him out. Got it?" The Doctor heard a distant groaning sound in the background of the recording. Donna nodded and turned back to the camera, her face serious, "And finally, find someone. You need to travel with someone, have someone to stop you. You don't have to love them. Maybe not even like them. Just make they're good to our baby and will stop you when you need it. Because you need someone, Doctor. Don't travel alone." The Doctor heard an alarm going off on the recording and his Metacrisis self was shouting something he couldn't quite make out. Donna came closer to the camera, her hand obviously on the button to end the recording, "Love you." The hologram disappeared. The Doctor found himself sitting on the grated floor, holding Eliza tight to him. She was looking up at him with her big brown eyes. The Doctor kissed her forehead,

"Mummy loves you, and so do I. And I'll have you know, that is the only Sunday I will ever land on."


End file.
